1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a terminal emulator connected between a computer and peripheral devices such as a mouse, a keyboard, and a monitor, as well as a controlling method therefore.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there has been known a KVM (K:keyboard, V:video, M:mouse) switch including a terminal emulator which is connected between a plurality of computers and peripheral devices such as a mouse, a keyboard, and a monitor (see e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 6,567,869).
The KVM switch converts communication data output from a communication port (e.g. a serial port, a USB (Universal Serial Bus) port, or the like) of the selected computer into analog video data, and outputs the analog video data to the monitor. That is, the KVM switch can switch any one of pieces of communication data output from the plurality of computers to another one, and cause the monitor to display the another one of pieces of communication data as analog images.
Conventionally, there has been known a terminal emulator which is connected between a single computer and peripheral devices such as a mouse, a keyboard, and a monitor (see e.g. Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. 3-192455 and 2-206817).
The terminal emulator in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 3-192455 is connected to the single computer, causes the monitor to display two screens in different timings, and enables smooth processing of the job with a lot of changes of the screen. On the two screens, a present job screen and a next job screen transmitted from a job program are displayed.
The terminal emulator in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2-206817 is connected to the single computer, and causes the monitor to display two screens for the job, thereby enhancing operability of the computer. On the two screens for the job, job contents and help guidance are displayed.
However, since the terminal emulator in U.S. Pat. No. 6,567,869 switches any one of pieces of communication data output from the plurality of computers to another one, and cause the monitor to display the another one of pieces of communication data as analog images, a piece of communication data (i.e., real-time data) from a single computer is displayed on a screen of the monitor. The terminal emulator in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 3-192455 displays the continuous pieces of real-time data (i.e., the plurality of pieces of data representing contents of present job and next job) from the single computer on the screen of the monitor.
The terminal emulator in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2-206817 displays real-time data (i.e., data representing contents of the job) and fixed data (i.e., help guidance) from the single computer on the screen of the monitor.
Therefore, in the above terminal emulators, a user cannot refer to the real-time data and the plurality of pieces of log data at the same time. Further, the user cannot refer to the plurality of pieces of the real-time data and selected log data at the same time.